Traditional Arts Indiana will join in regional celebrations of Indiana limestone with an exhibit and programming at several events throughout June. Limestone Traditions: Stoneworking in South-Central Indiana, a traveling exhibit from Traditional Arts Indiana (TAI), will be on display at various locations in Lawrence, Owen, and Monroe counties in celebration of Limestone Month. The exhibit takes a cultural approach to the region’s building stone industry, featuring craftspeople, local quarries and mills, and the experiences and stories of career stone workers. The exhibit will open on June 1 at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, then travel to weekend events at McCormick’s Creek State Park in Spencer (June 15), Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell (June 22-23), and to Bedford’s town square (June 29). In addition to the exhibit, TAI has invited several stone craftspeople to demonstrate and discuss their work at the weekend events.

In October 2012, working with Indiana Parks and Reservoirs, TAI launched a research project exploring present-day Indiana limestone work in towns along the Salem Oolitic Limestone Belt. TAI researcher Joseph O’Connell interviewed people involved in the industry about everything from turning a stone baluster to running a fifth-generation family business. The exhibit features excerpts from these conversations with accompanying documentary photography. It presents a range of individuals involved in limestone work, including carvers, toolmakers, and other tradespeople.

“Very few people have the opportunity to have a job that’s also their passion–that they can make a living off of, and have the hands-on feeling of it, and can look back at the final product of it and see the steps that went into it, and know what you did—the small part that you played in completing the total job for the building,” Jim Matthews, sawyer at Bybee Stone Company, shared with O’Connell during one interview.

In partnership with Indiana University and the Indiana Arts Commission, Traditional Arts Indiana (TAI) researches, documents, and presents cultural traditions throughout the state of Indiana. The exhibit is presented in partnership with Indiana Parks and Reservoirs and funded in part by the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Matt Bruce, a stone cutter and carver at Architectural Stone Sales in Bedford, poses with one of his sculptures, a pair of working limestone scissors.(Photo Credit: William Winchester Claytor, Traditional Arts Indiana)

3 Responses to Upcoming Limestone Events

The following program was presented in 2013. Will there be a repeat any time in 2014? My 3rd great grandfather’s gravestone in Owen County is carved limestone and so I am very interested in this traditional Indiana art form. “June 14: “Southern Indiana Gravestones and their Makers” Presentation by folklorist and TAI Director Jon Kay; Mathers Museum of World Cultures (Bloomington); Noon–1 p.m. Free”
Thank you!